organic/free range realistic spend?

moo2moo

We eat organic meat and nothing but organic meat. I buy direct from the farmer in bulk butchered to order. Currently a happy organically raised free ranging outdoor reared pig costs £1 per pound (after boning). That works out at £65-75 per half pig. Fills 1/2 a freezer and lasts 2 months. Usually gives me 18 joints large enough for 4 adults, 2 carrier bags of sausages, a carrier bag of bacon and whatever else appears. Lamb is also £1 per pound. I did look into rearing these but the slaughter cost was more than I pay the farmer for a butchered animal.

Chickens are reared for meat and eggs in the garden. Surplus eggs are swapped for homemade jams, chutneys, wine and home grown veg with a lady who gardens organically.

Eating organically is only expensive when you purchase your meat at a supermarket. Try your local farmers markets and invite yourself to visit a few of the farms. That way you really do know what you are buying.

You could try Open Farm Sunday. A national scheme on Sunday June 1st where farmers willingly open theri gates to the general public. If anyone happens to be in North Wales that day I thoroughly reccomed North Wales Buffallo at Halkyn. They have a superb BBQ and tours of the bee hives and fab views. Its a great place for a picnic! Last year the kids made their own buffalo sausages and were each given a kilo to bring home.

http://www.farmsunday.org/farmsunday08/

ceridwen

There ya go. I've just added some more food posts to my blog. So my food posts are listed under 22-24 May 2008 posts.

My blog is pretty wide-ranging in the topics I cover - but these are the food ones to date on:

http://chezceridwen.blogspot.com/

mama67

MOO2MOO where is this wonderful farm you are buying from as I paid that price for half a normal pig 2 years ago.

TIA

CoD_2

where you buy meat from certainly helps, i popped into a butchers on the way home from buying grain for our chooks and bought a free range local chicken for 4.48. it's a good 1.8 kg and would have cost nearly double that from a supermarket. it'll do at least 4 meals for the 2 of us.

moo2moo

Mama67 the farm is is North Wales, they don't do mail order but there are lots of welsh farmers who do. The price is about the same but shipping makes it expensive as the refrigerated next day service is generally £30.

As an example : Award winning Pork from the 2007 UKTV Food Local Food Hero Regional Champion (South Wales) and UK Finalist Nominated again for 2008 is £75 per 1/2 pig collected or £95 delivered to your door.

There are lots of farmers out there who can offer you a superb price providing you're prepared to buy in bulk and pre-order.

kj*daisy

I spend £16 aweek on a fruit and veg box , then another £50 - £70 in the supermarket depnding on what I've got to stock up on. That sometimes includes some wine and beer.

So what you are spending sounds good.

There's 4 of us to feed from that. I use the old style meal planning etc to avoid waste and not spend more than neccessary but as I can afford to buy fair trade and free range I do try to.

Squelchy

I find it quite hard to say how much I spend weekly, as I bulk buy and don't get a box every week, but I used to reckon on £80/month for one person. The key to this is that I don't eat much meat, take advantage of special offers, freeze portions or soup instead of throwing out "leftovers", and breakfast mainly on porridge.

I have two main suggestions for cutting your expenditure whilst staying green, in addition to what is listed in the posts above:
1. Growing your own. My parents (with a patch of garden about the size of an ordinary allotment) are almost self-sufficient for the summer months. I don't have that luxury, but on two windowsills I manage all my fresh herbs and tomatoes.
2. If you are green about non-edible goods (eg. washing powder) try looking through the "green and ethical" threads which discuss where to get these in bulk most cheaply. Also, Tesco savers' loo roll is actually 100% recycled and (the last time I bought it) under 50p for 4 rolls, I think. It doesn't seem to scratchy, either!